| Unequal treaties | |||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 不平等條約 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 不平等条约 | ||||||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||||||
| Hangul | 불평등 조약 | ||||||||||||
| Hanja | 不平等條約 | ||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||
| Kanji | 不平等条約 | ||||||||||||
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Theunequal treaties were a series of agreements made between Asian countries—most notablyQing China,Tokugawa Japan andJoseon Korea—and Western countries—most notably theUnited Kingdom,France,Germany,Austria-Hungary,Italy, theUnited States andRussia—during the 19th and early 20th centuries.[1] They were often signed following a military defeat suffered by the Asian party, or amid military threats made by the Western party. The terms specified obligations to be borne almost exclusively by the Asian party and included provisions such as the cession of territory, payment of reparations, opening oftreaty ports, relinquishment of the right to controltariffs and imports, and granting ofextraterritoriality to foreign citizens.[2]
With the rise ofChinese nationalism andanti-imperialism in the 1920s, both theKuomintang and theChinese Communist Party used the concept to characterize the Chinese experience of losingsovereignty between roughly 1840 to 1950. The term "unequal treaty" became associated with the concept of China's "century of humiliation", especially theconcessions to foreign powers and the loss oftariff autonomy throughtreaty ports, and continues to serve as a major impetus for theforeign policy of China today.
Japan and Korea also use the term to refer to several treaties that resulted in a reduction of their national sovereignty. Japan and China signed treaties with Korea such as theJapan–Korea Treaty of 1876 andChina–Korea Treaty of 1882, with each granting privileges to the former parties concerning Korea.Japan after theMeiji Restoration also began enforcing unequal treaties against China after its victory in theFirst Sino-Japanese War for influence over Korea as well as China's coastal ports and territories.
In China, the term "unequal treaties" first came into use in the early 1920s to describe the historical treaties, still imposed on the then-Republic of China, that were signed through the period of time which the American sinologistJohn K. Fairbank characterized as the "treaty century" which began in the 1840s.[3] The term was popularized bySun Yat-sen.[4]: 53
In assessing the term's usage in rhetorical discourse since the early 20th century, American historian Dong Wang notes that "while the phrase has long been widely used, it nevertheless lacks a clear and unambiguous meaning" and that there is "no agreement about the actual number of treaties signed between China and foreign countries that should be counted as unequal."[3] However, within the scope of Chinese historiographical scholarship, the phrase has typically been defined to refer to the many cases in which China was effectively forced to pay large amounts of financialreparations, open up ports for trade, cede or lease territories (such asOuter Manchuria andOuter Northwest China (includingZhetysu) to theRussian Empire,Hong Kong andWeihaiwei to theUnited Kingdom,Guangzhouwan toFrance,Kwantung Leased Territory andTaiwan to theEmpire of Japan, theJiaozhou Bay concession to theGerman Empire and concession territory inTientsin,Shamian,Hankou,Shanghai etc.), and make various other concessions of sovereignty to foreignspheres of influence, following military threats.[5]
The Chinese-American sinologistImmanuel Hsu states that the Chinese viewed the treaties they signed with Western powers and Russia as unequal "because they were not negotiated by nations treating each other as equals but were imposed on China after a war, and because they encroached upon China's sovereign rights ... which reduced her to semicolonial status".[6]
The earliest treaty later referred to as "unequal" was the 1841Convention of Chuenpi negotiations during theFirst Opium War. The first treaty between theQing dynasty and theUnited Kingdom termed "unequal" was theTreaty of Nanjing in 1842.[5]
Following Qing China's defeat, treaties with Britain opened up five ports to foreign trade, while also allowing foreignmissionaries, at least in theory, to reside within China. Foreign residents in the port cities were afforded trials by their own consular authorities rather than theChinese legal system, a concept termedextraterritoriality.[5] Under the treaties, the UK and the US established theBritish Supreme Court for China and Japan andUnited States Court for China inShanghai.
The unequal treaties gave European powers jurisdiction over missions in China and some authority over Chinese Christians.[7]: 182
AfterWorld War I, patriotic consciousness in China focused on the treaties, which now became widely known as "unequal treaties." TheNationalist Party and theChinese Communist Party competed to convince the public that their approach would be more effective.[5] Germany was forced to terminate its rights, the Soviet Union surrendered them, and the United States organized theWashington Conference to negotiate them.[8]
AfterChiang Kai-shek declared a new national government in 1927, the Western powers quickly offered diplomatic recognition, arousing anxiety in Japan.[8] The new government declared to the Great Powers that China had been exploited for decades under unequal treaties, and that the time for such treaties was over, demanding they renegotiate all of them on equal terms.[9]
After theBoxer Rebellion and the signing of theAnglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, Germany began to reassess its policy approach towards China. In 1907 Germany suggested a trilateral German-Chinese-American agreement that never materialised. Thus China entered the new era of ending unequal treaties on March 14, 1917, when it broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, thereby terminating the concessions it had given that country, withChina declaring war on Germany on August 17, 1917.[10]
As World War I commenced, these acts voided the unequal treaty of 1861, resulting in the reinstatement of Chinese control on the concessions of Tianjin and Hankou to China. In 1919, the post-war peace negotiations failed to return the territories in Shandong, previously under German colonial control, back to theRepublic of China. After it was determined that the Japanese forces occupying those territories since 1914 would be allowed to retain them under theTreaty of Versailles, the Chinese delegateWellington Koo refused to sign the peace agreement, with China being the only conference member to boycott the signing ceremony. Widely perceived in China as a betrayal of the country's wartime contributions by the other conference members, the domestic backlash following the failure to restore Shandong would cause the collapse of the cabinet of theDuan Qirui government and lead to theMay 4th movement.[11][12]
On May 20, 1921, China secured with the German-Chinese peace treaty (Deutsch-chinesischer Vertrag zur Wiederherstellung des Friedenszustandes) a diplomatic accord which was considered the first equal treaty between China and a European nation.[10]
During theNanjing period, the Republic of China unsuccessfully sought to negotiate an end to the unequal treaties.[13]: 69-70
Many treaties China considered unequal were repealed during theSecond Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). After theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, China became an ally with the United Kingdom and the United States, which then signed treaties with China to end British and Americanextraterritoriality in January 1943.[14] Significant examples outlasted World War II: treaties regardingHong Kong remained in place untilHong Kong's 1997 handover, though in 1969, to improveSino-Soviet relations in the wake ofmilitary skirmishes along their border, the People's Republic of China was forced to reconfirm the 1858Treaty of Aigun and 1860Treaty of Peking.[citation needed]
Prior to theMeiji Restoration, Japan was also subject to numerous unequal treaties. When the US expeditionary fleet led byMatthew Perry reached Japan in 1854 to force open the island nation for American trade, the country was compelled to sign theConvention of Kanagawa under thethreat of violence by the American warships.[15] This event abruptly terminated Japan's 220 years of seclusion under theSakoku policy of 1633 under unilateral foreign pressure and consequentially, the convention has been seen in a similar light as an unequal treaty.[16]
Another significant incident was theTokugawa Shogunate's capitulation to theHarris Treaty of 1858, negotiated by the eponymous U.S. envoyTownsend Harris, which, among other concessions, established a system ofextraterritoriality for foreign residents. This agreement would then serve as a model for similar treaties to be further signed by Japan with other foreign Western powers in the weeks to follow, such as theAnsei Treaties.[17]
Unequal treaties with the United States and Europe prevented Japan from unilaterally setting tariff rates on imported goods.[18]: 8 As a result, it was hampered in developing domestic industries that could compete with imported goods.[18]: 8
The enforcement of these unequal treaties were a tremendous national shock for Japan's leadership as they both curtailed Japanese sovereignty for the first time in its history and also revealed the nation's growing weakness relative to the West through the latter's successful imposition of such agreements upon the island nation. An objective towards the recovery of national status and strength would become an overarching priority for Japan, with the treaty's domestic consequences being the end of theBakufu, the 700 years of shogunate rule over Japan, and the establishment of a new imperial government.[19]
The unequal treaties ended at various times for the countries involved and Japan's victories in the 1894–95First Sino-Japanese War convinced many in the West that unequal treaties could no longer be enforced on Japan as it was a great power in its own right. This view gained more recognition following theRusso-Japanese War in 1905, whereby Japan most notably defeated Russia in a massive humiliation for the latter.[20]
Korea's first unequal treaty was not with the West, but instead with Japan. TheGanghwa Island incident in 1875 saw Japan send the warshipUn'yō led by CaptainInoue Yoshika with the implied threat of military action to coerce the Korean kingdom ofJoseon through theshow of force. After an armed clash ensued around Ganghwa Island where the Japanese force was sent, which resulted in its victory, the incident subsequently forced Korea to open its doors to Japan by signing theTreaty of Ganghwa Island, also known as theJapan–Korea Treaty of 1876.[21]
During this period Korea also signed treaties with Qing China and the West powers (such as theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States). In the case of Qing China, it signed theChina–Korea Treaty of 1882 with Korea stipulating that Korea was a dependency of China and granted the Chinese extraterritoriality and other privileges,[22] and in subsequent treaties China also obtained concessions in Korea, such as theChinese concession of Incheon.[23][24] However, Qing China lost its influence over Korea following theFirst Sino-Japanese War in 1895.[25]
As Japanese dominance over the Korean peninsula grew in the following decades, with respect to the unequal treaties imposed upon the kingdom by the West powers, Korea's diplomatic concessions with those states became largely null and void in 1910, when it wasannexed by Japan.[26]
In 2018,Malaysian prime ministerMahathir Mohamad criticized the terms of infrastructure projects under the ChineseBelt and Road Initiative in Malaysia,[59][60] stating that "China knows very well that it had to deal with unequal treaties in the past imposed upon China by Western powers. So China should be sympathetic toward us. They know we cannot afford this."[61]
